Extra selling at the till

nwc389

I know it can be irritating but the poor sales person will have been told to ask 'every single customer ' - just like I was when I worked at the bank , even though we knew that some of the ones we asked would never in a million years qualify for the particular product we were flogging that day , even though we knew that we were going to have someone lose their temper about marketing at the till we still had to ask - and we hated it .
When I am asked at tills if I want stamps/ phone top ups/ crappy perfume / store cards etc I just politely say no because I know the person serving me has been told to do it by their manager .

dacouch

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Except that the card gives Tesco more information about your shopping habits: there is nothing silly at all about not wishing to give this information away, and so renouncing the small reward that they give in return. That is simply a personal choice.

If you factor in how lapse Tesco's are with customer data, they featured on BBC Watchdog at least once where people were able to ring up and be given the personal details of Tesco Clubcard members.

That's without the more recent hacking of the Clubcard points.

Clubcard is not for me because of the above plus I tend to avoid Tesco where possible as I don't agree with a lot of their business practices

Heffi1

I wonder if when you have politely said no thanks to their offer, and they repeat it, you were to put your goods on the counter and walk away without buying, they would take notice. Maybe a letter to Head Office to follow it up.


Dear Sir,


I popped into your store today to purchase some goods, but was accosted at the till by one of your sales assistants who asked me if I wished to purchase an extra item, on telling them no thanks I am not interested, they repeated the offer, which I took exception to, so placed the goods I was going to buy on the counter and took my business elsewhere.


Yours sincerely a very annoyed customer.

[Deleted User]

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Except that the card gives Tesco more information about your shopping habits: there is nothing silly at all about not wishing to give this information away, and so renouncing the small reward that they give in return. That is simply a personal choice.

Even without the loyalty card they still collect this data if you pay by credit, or debit card. You would need to pay by cash to avoid this.

Money-Saving-King

Heffi1 wrote: »

I wonder if when you have politely said no thanks to their offer, and they repeat it, you were to put your goods on the counter and walk away without buying, they would take notice. Maybe a letter to Head Office to follow it up.


Dear Sir,


I popped into your store today to purchase some goods, but was accosted at the till by one of your sales assistants who asked me if I wished to purchase an extra item, on telling them no thanks I am not interested, they repeated the offer, which I took exception to, so placed the goods I was going to buy on the counter and took my business elsewhere.


Yours sincerely a very annoyed customer.

The problem is people will still buy the things. When I worked for Smiths they'd always sell hundreds of thousands of whatever the product on offer is. At CEO level (Kate Swann at the time) when they look at the revenue these things generate they simply will not stop doing it because of a few complaints because of the simple fact it actually makes money.

fierystormcloud

daytona0 wrote: »

Wait, I'm just curious but are you refusing to go to Tesco because of what one employee said to you? Or is it just not your preferred choice? One of those scenarios is extremely silly, especially when you consider employee personalities and staff turnover in large supermarket chains (it could have been said in ANY store by ANYONE).

I agree with the employee though, it is a bit silly. By virtue of you being on this forum I do not understand why you wouldn't show more consideration for loyalty cards; after all, they simply give you cash back for doing activities you would do anyway. The whole principle behind them is to make you go to their supermarket more than others, but even if you don't change your shopping habits then you are going to end up with some money back eventually...

I certainly wouldn't call the employee rude, unless it was in the intonation/tone, but it was a bit plain-speaking. That is a good thing really, I only wish more people were like that!

What nonsense. Plain speaking my backside!

If I don't want a storecard, then I don't want one, and I don't appreciate being called stupid by some mindless drone on a checkout, because I choose to not comply with Tesco's wishes, and buy into the store's storecard system, so that they can give me 1p off a tin of something I never buy, along with pointless vouchers for other stuff I never buy! I much prefer Lidl and Asda; no silly pointless vouchers; just MUCH cheaper prices.

Whatever my reasons for not having storecards, that is my business, and I don't appreciate some silly bint at a checkout calling me stupid for not having one. There is always some annoying individual, who thinks they have a right to tell you what is best!' You know what is best? People staying out of my face and minding their own business! If I don't want a storecard, what has it got to do with the checkout operator? Or YOU, or anyone else, for that matter,?

And yes I did stop going to the store for this reason, but that wasn't my main store for shopping, so it was no loss. I did write a letter to the manager about the rudeness of his staff though, and did name the staff member concerned. I suggested he retrained her in customer care, as hard-working people who come to their store do not appreciate being called 'stupid' because they don't sing to Tesco's tune!

cddc

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

The problem is people will still buy the things. When I worked for Smiths they'd always sell hundreds of thousands of whatever the product on offer is. At CEO level (Kate Swann at the time) when they look at the revenue these things generate they simply will not stop doing it because of a few complaints because of the simple fact it actually makes money.

This is the truth, pure and simple. It works, so stores do it. Staff by and large hate it, many customers hate it.

It is part of Staff's KPI's and they will be pilloried by managers if lo and behold a mystery shop score falls below the required level because the poor cashier has not plugged the counter products.

At the end of the day, the store makes more money, and you end up with a piece of tat that you did not want in the first place.

The power is yours.....if enough of you resist it...it will go away.

Until then, expect it to spread like a virus.

dontone

boo_star wrote: »

Ever watched Undercover Boss?

I don't think the UK version is still going but the US version still is.

It does a very good job of showing how distanced from reality CEOs and executives are.

They think that pushing an extra line of products at the checkout is fine. Customers (and by extension checkout staff) despise it.

hiya


Yes, I've watched a few of them, both UK & USA. I used to work for a place (not going to mention it but it starts with 'A' and ends in 'rgos') and every week we had a performance review which included the time it took to serve customers - that 'no. 345 go to your collection point please' is timed and also how many CC's, warranties the till staff flogged. I don't know if it still happens, because it's been a long time since I worked there, and I generally avoid the place.
I remember one of the cashier's getting really irked by it, - she was the only one who said anything - because she hated having to push cards, etc, every time she served customers. a lot of them just wanted to pay and go and collect their purchase. Working there wasn't exactly a nice experience anyway, so I could totally see her point. It wasn't enough to keep an eye on all the stock that was put on the shop floor, we had to really be on our toes trying to push CC's and serve people as fast as possible.
I'm glad I got out of it tbh.

Ratison

I know it probably does make the stores money - but how much custom do you think they lose by using this technique? You may have 1 out of 10 customers buying the extra product, but how many of the 10 decide not to come back?

nwc389

Heffi1 wrote: »

I wonder if when you have politely said no thanks to their offer, and they repeat it, you were to put your goods on the counter and walk away without buying, they would take notice. Maybe a letter to Head Office to follow it up.


Dear Sir,


I popped into your store today to purchase some goods, but was accosted at the till by one of your sales assistants who asked me if I wished to purchase an extra item, on telling them no thanks I am not interested, they repeated the offer, which I took exception to, so placed the goods I was going to buy on the counter and took my business elsewhere.


Yours sincerely a very annoyed customer.

By the time I've queued to buy the stuff I'm surely not going to throw my dummy out and leave it on the counter , causing a scene for some poor beggar who has been on their feet for hours already and just wants to finish their shift in peace.
I've been on the end of many a rant about things I had no control over whatsoever and it's just something you can do without when you just want to get through your day at work .
I know it can be irritating but as other people have said if it makes money then writing a letter won't stop it .